Microsoft’s previously proposed 10-year Call of Duty deal with Nintendo has been officially signed by the two companies. Microsoft’s president Brad Smith made the official announcement via his Twitter earlier today. According to Smith, the deal will let Nintendo Switch owners experience Call of Duty titles“…the same day as Xbox, with full feature and content parity.” Smith continued siting the deal as part of the company’s commitment to bring games like Call of Duty “… to more players on more platforms.”
Additionally, Microsoft announced a similar deal with NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service at a press conference today in Brussels. Within the press release, the company promised to bring Xbox titles for PC’s to Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, including Activision Blizzard titles like Call of Duty when the acquisition is settled. Similar to the deal with Nintendo, it would be a 10-year deal to make Microsoft games available to stream regardless of where you purchase them.
“Xbox remains committed to giving people more choice and finding ways to expand how people play,” said Phil Spencer, Microsoft Gaming CEO. “This partnership will help grow NVIDIA’s catalog of titles to include games like Call of Duty, while giving developers more ways to offer streaming games. We are excited to offer gamers more ways to play the games they love.”
This plan with Nvidia would allow for more options and, according to Microsoft, “…resolves NVIDIA’s concerns with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard.” NVIDIA has become the latest company to fully support Microsoft’s acquisition.
Microsoft and NVIDIA will begin work immediately to integrate Xbox PC games into GeForce NOW, so that GeForce NOW members can stream PC games they buy in the Windows Store, including third-party partner titles where the publisher has granted streaming rights to NVIDIA. Xbox PC games currently available in third-party stores like Steam or Epic Games Store will also be able to be streamed through GeForce NOW.
Microsoft’s first 10-year plan was first announced in December 2022 as a response to the rampant concerns and criticism its $68.7 billion acquisition deal of Activision Blizzard, intensified by the recent FTC lawsuit against it. Since the deal’s announcement in January 2022, industry competitors and government regulators feared that it could negatively impact competition within the gaming industry by restricting access to the popular franchises Microsoft would gain from the deal.
Microsoft has continued to deny the deal’s negative impact on competition within the industry, even stating that it had no plans to keep franchises like Call of Duty from other platforms. Microsoft even offered the same 10-year Call of Duty plan to PlayStation back when it was first announced. Regardless, the critiques against the acquisition have only grown worse, with Microsoft appearing before EU courts to defend the deal today also in Brussels. That said, the company remains confident in the deal’s success.
“We continue to believe that this deal will expand competition and create more opportunities for gamers and game developers,” said Smith. “We have been committed since Day One to addressing competition concerns, including by offering earlier this week proposed concessions to the FTC. While we believed in giving peace a chance, we have complete confidence in our case and welcome the opportunity to present it in court.”